Three generations

CONTENTS
CHAPTER II
PAGES
The necessity for a change of dwelling — The town houses of the
old county gentry in the town — The uses of a summer-house
— Cupar in its golden days a miniature Edinburgh — Its
poverty and pride, and its philosophy and simplicity going
hand -in -hand with its poverty — The " Shirra " (Sheriff
Substitute) one of the " Three Merry Andrews " — My father
and mother's acceptance by the town — The family life of
the time — The social life — A day in the past, beginning with
the visit of the peripatetic barber — The public holidays —
The King's birthday and the elections — My father's firm's
eccentric client — Sir Michael's winding-sheet - - 75 — 87
CHAPTER III
An age of nicknames and practical jokes — The bet in the Sun
Tavern — The Wizard of the North and the " Waverley Novels"
— A faithful middle-class wife and mother's obligations —
Young Scott Lauder's picture of my mother — Her interest
in contemporary topics — Byron and Lady Byron (" Fare
thee well, and if for ever ") — Ancient society figures — My
mother's favourite heroines : Princess Charlotte and the
Empress Josephine — A baseless royal tragedy — The romance
of another Princess, probably arising from the death-bed part-
ing of Princess Amelia and her father — The Creole heroine,
with her shallow and sensuous nature, far removed from the
Scottish standard of morals — Bourrienne's incriminating
statement — My mother's zeal and activity in letting her
house to the visitors for the " Fife Hunt " — The money earned
hers, to do with it as she chose — Her choice - - 88 — 99
CHAPTER IV
Time passes — Children growing up — Professional income limited
— Familiarity with mining traditions, without a practical
knowledge of mining — Leasing the Grange coal-pits — Travel-
ling to and fro — Removal of the family to the old mansion-
house of Grange on the east coast of Fife — The coast as
seen from the brae on which the house stood — The Isle of
May— The Bass Rock — The Douglases Fort of Tantallon —
The shifting light of Inchkeith — The view from the back of
the house : Largo Law, Largo Bay— Strathairlie — Balcarres
Craig — Kelly Law — Within the house the panelled dining-